Help Prashant (India) and Ben (Canada) to build a model for sustainable housing and a future skills training centre in Bihar, Northern India: a place for urban farming, renewable energies and water treatment, to change the future of a vulnerable region.

Hello from Ben and Prashant!

Prashant Kumar is a community artist and upcycling designer. Ben
Reid-Howells is an educator, community organiser and
musician. We are just two people, independent of any government,
corporation or NGO and entirely supported by the communities around
us who are as passionate about this work as we are. Help us to make
this project a reality!

THE BIHAR PROJECT

THE PROBLEM. We are working in Arrah, Bihar, a so called “backwards state”
and a place that is developing very quickly and very unsustainably.
Unplanned urban sprawl has led to health issues caused by open
sewage, environmental issues due to loss of green space, and social
issues due to no model for affordable housing or sustainable
sourcing of energy. Much of the work that is happening in other
regions of India to address such issues simply isn’t happening here
in Bihar.

OUR WORK.We are working to create a model for self-reliant and
sustainable housing. We are constructing using
upcycled waste and natural materials,
integrating solar, wind and water filtration systems
and introducing urban gardening to the
area. The result will be a home that treats its own waste water,
runs on renewable energy, grows its own food and is affordable to
local middle-class families.

LONGTERM VISIONS – A skills training centre for the next generation.Bihar is Prashant’s native state and after years away he is now
returning to do this work and to begin a long term process towards a
more sustainable future for the people and land of Bihar. The
model-home we are now building will become a skills training centre
that Prashant will run: a place where people will learn the skills,
perspectives and ethics required to lead a new chapter of
sustainable development here in Bihar.

A COMMUNITY PROCESS. For us this project is defined by the community around it.
Throughout the Bihar Project we are hosting volunteers from Bihar,
India and international travelers and professionals. Along with the
construction work, we are engaging with the local community, doing
workshops in local schools and colleges, conducting sessions with
neighbourhood children, and other emergent community programs:
engaging different people from a diverse mix of socioeconomic
backgrounds. We believe that the whole world is one family, and this
is what drives us in this project in Bihar and in the other projects
of the Vasudhaiva Ride. (See more on the Vasudhaiva Ride below).

See more of Ben and Prashant's story and previous work.

HOW WILL THE FUNDS BE USED?

The funds you donate will go directly into the creation of this
prototype self-reliant home and future skills training centre.
Here’s how the breakdown of the costs.

Upcycled waste material: So far 6,000 glass
bottles, 200 old tyres, oil drums, scrap metal, wood and more: the
materials that Prashant is using to transform into upcycled products
for the furniture, garden, lighting and other features. $ 2.000 USD.

Program costs: From hosting volunteers to
delivering workshops at schools in surrounding towns, this covers
the human costs of this work over the six months of this project:
the team working to make this project a reality! $ 2,500 USD.

WHY CROWDFUNDING?

We are working to create a model for sustainable,
self-reliant housing and the foundations for a future
skills training centre. We don’t have any NGO or
corporation behind us, but we are passionate to make this work
happen. Just as this project is inspired by the needs of the
community around it, we are striving to keep this a community owned
endeavour, rather than corporate. And that means crowdfunding. We
believe in creating a future of sustainable livelihood and resilient
housing and we need your help to make this possible!

We are lucky enough to be working at a very grassroots level,
with Prashant as a local to the region we are in, and we believe
that people should be able to support projects like this without
supporting the bureaucratic fees of large scale NGOs. This
is a way to give directly to an on-the-ground project.

Any support you can give will help us make this project a
reality. Please share this story, join us in Arrah until the end of
December (2017) and give what you can!

WHY WE'RE EXCITED. :)

We've seen the success of our first two projects, and are now
connecting with organisations, government schools, artists and
organisers across India and beyond to make this project a great
success. What we need is the funds to make it happen!

Any support you can give is a huge help. Join us in making a sustainable future for Bihar a reality!

THANK YOU!

Yours in One world, One family,

-Prashant Kumar and Ben Reid-Howells

For more on who we are, how the work is going and more on the
Vasudhaiva Ride, find us online at the links below.

The Vasudhaiva Ride.

In January 2017, we left our jobs, homes and most of our
belongings to set out on the Vasudhaiva Ride: a two-year series of diverse collaborative projects working
towards peace, sustainable
living and community wellbeing.

See the origin story here.

We are working towards the vision of Vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam—the whole world is one family. To do this, we
are collaborating on projects and sharing stories of people working
in radically different ways towards a more united world. We are
doing this to provide an alternative global narrative of hope,
resilience and union, as well as facilitating the exchange of
resources for such work. Two projects have been completed so far. We
are currently working on our third project. See more on the our
first projects below.

In our first project took place at a public school in Jijamata
Nagar, a slum community in inner city Bombay. We worked with Meenal
Srinivasan and EDUCO, a program that brings child-centric, innovative pedagogy to
underprivileged students. We led workshops with students on
peace-work and sustainable living, and a teacher-training program on
experiential education. Learn more about this project
on accessible education.

Project No.2: A Home from Waste

In our second project we worked with Nivedita Bagh to create
a zero-waste design process, local knowledge and upcycled
waste and natural materials to build a community centre and
affordable home (1,500 USD) in Pushkar, Rajasthan.

What emerged was a model for affordable, sustainable,
locally sourced housing.

International travelers joined and worked alongside local
villagers. We created a mud house with glass-bottle walls: a home,
community centre and a statement of what a transnational community
can create with hard work and a solid vision.

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